奄

Yan3
#3,456 most
frequent character
surname Yan

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

奄 was drawn as lightning 电 over a person 大, now with their places swapped. It first meant 'to spread wide to cover'. That grew to 'to cover, surround', then to flooding and to 'suddenly'. Read yān, the word 'castrate; eunuch' was borrowed for its sound only.

Drawn as: lightning flash over person

奄 as a component in other characters

meaning2 characters
掩俺
sound11 characters
掩淹俺庵阉鹌罨崦埯唵殗
picture2 characters
腌醃

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Same Characters, Different Readings

奄yān
to castrate, to delay
奄yǎn
suddenly, abruptly, hastily

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